Society for the Exploration of Africa and the Congo Basin
The Congo Society is Robert Can't 's entry for Taillesskangaru 's Iron and Blood 7 . Although keeping common characters and families in the Congo Society history, it is notable for being a discontinuation in Robert Can't's traditional use of Port Hadley as his I&B nation. Management *'Administrative Capital:' Mechelen (Netherlands) *'Colonial Capital:' Port Layton (OTL Boma) *'Government:' Corporatocracy *'Current Colonial Governor for Congo:' Julien Mertens *'Other Seats on the Association Board:' Thomas Layton, Timmothy Hadley, Heinrich Heckendorf, Marie-Charlotte Bonaparte, Lucas Willems, Jose-Rafael Puan, Alexandre de Montmorency *'Subsidiary Ventures:' Atlantic Postal Service 'Political Structure' : The Society is an Association of Investors forming a corporation that has aims for exploration and trade in Africa. Similar to the failed EIC and VOC the Society is a Public Company controlled by shareholders that meet regularly in the Society headquarters in Mechelen in Belgium. The society appoints the Association Board and elects a Colonial Governor for Congo in order to manage the company. In Africa itself the Company's main base is Port Layton, named after Thomas Layton whom with the help of the Hadley family founded the company. From Port Leyton the day to day administration occurs which for the most part include the continued investigation into the extraction of resources in the basin and further exploration. Trade posts up and down the river allow the flow of goods and with its strategic position on the mouth of the river all goods must flow through Port Leyton in order to reach Europe. Its main export is Ivory but also many other industries have sprung up using the wealth of organic and mineral resources in the area. The Company offers use of the land for a price to investors in order that it be best used though all investors must pay heed to the rules and regulations stipulated in the Company charter including the banning of slavery and similar practices. History The Company found its origins in the dreams of two rich families from England; the Laytons and the Hadleys. These two families had worked together with the EIC before its monumental financial failures at the beginning of the century. The two families had both had large influence in the administration of Ceylon and the city they had founded there named Port Hadley. Unfortunately in 1804 due to the economic collapse a local Tamil warlord took advantage of the situation and rose up against the EIC raising the city to the ground in the process. The two families returned to Europe with wounded prides and growing dissatisfaction for the government interference that had led to the collapse of the company and raising of their city. However they did not stand defeated, they were still two of the wealthiest families in Britain and their cooperation had served them well in the past and so the began to scheme on a new project, a corporation free of government control. At the time the Netherlands, recently unified with Belgium, had also ended up with the VOC declaring bankruptcy. So Thomas Layton thought that there may be other families that shared the same dissatisfaction as the Hadleys and Laytons so he traveled over to Amsterdam where he met Adrian Willems who had been a large stockholder in the VOC. Willems and Layton along with Timothy Hadley then decided in 1809 to form their own company which the called the East India Association however they found little support for this as many were still too wary of investing where the EIC and VOC had failed. Then they met a Belgian trader named Mertens who told them of his expeditions around Africa as a trader and explorer. Layton, always public relations specialist of the operation, saw this as an opportunity too good to be missed: though there was a bad atmosphere associated with investment in East India there was no such stigma with Africa. After proposing the idea to the others he took an expedition off to the Congo and founded Port Layton on the mouth of the Congo. In 1812 the company was reborn as The Society for the Exploration of Africa and the Congo Basin and soon attracted numerous investors. One such was the Marquis de Montmorency - exiled from France when Napoleon came to power but who still had huge amounts of land and wealth. It was his vision that the company should set up some sort of national identity. Though initially the major families were opposed to this it soon became increasingly clear that with nations such as New South Wales there was scope for a non-colonial European nation to feasibly exist. de Montmorency soon traveled to Port Layton with the mandate of building it into a real town rather than just a small trading post and as the Hadleys had in Ceylon he put great priority on encouraging art to flourish in the Congo giving a sense of European culture free from the shackles of European Imperialism. The project was initially not as successful as the Port Hadley enterprise due to the small population and harsher environment but soon a small town began to flourish on the banks of the Congo, fueled by the river trade and finely crafted by de Montmorency's artisans. It was also de Montmorency's influence that led to the creation of the Atlantic Postal Service in 1816 - a company owned enterprise that was established to facilitate postal links to Europe and America from Africa. In 1817 Heckendorf, a German furniture manufacturer became a shareholder in the company. his concerns were setting up his furniture industry in the town of Port Layton, being closer to the raw materials and with the transport links necessary for intercontinental orders he thought it was a marvelous opportunity to expand the scope of the venture from just material extraction to processing as well. until this time all shareholders had processed the raw goods the took in Europe often in Amsterdam, Antwerp and other cities in the Netherlands but with Heckendorf came others who began to set up shops in Port Layton as it became cheaper to send finished goods by the APS then transporting the raw materials. Though Port Leyton and its industry remain a very small settlement the mainstay of the Society's power comes through the wealth and influence of its shareholders. As of yet the Congo venture is not especially lucrative. But the foresight of the current investors means that they are willing to invest large amounts of money effort and influence into the Society. The Society is a powerful corporation that promises great wealth to all its investors. Category:I&B7 Category:Countries